Mentis Fugit - two minds, half a brain

Friday, November 25, 2005

My head a-splode

DENVER - Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.

"If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses — because that goes straight to the bottom line — then I hope I can help the country in some way," Brown told the Rocky Mountain News for its Thursday editions.

Words fail. Well actually they don't, but I'm not expecting an honest answer to the question, "What the fuck is he smoking, and where can I get some?"

I need to drink more (or possibly less)

It is strange to me, how quickly New Orleans seems to have slipped from the forefront of our national consciousness [...]

Here's the entry I should have posted.

How many dead are there? As soon as the number started emerging, I felt like there was something wrong. The estimates and then the numbers reported weren't even close. The actuals were too accurate, too soon; something was wrong here; the numbers were being fudged. Not out of malice - I'm not a conspiracy loon - but out of wishful thinking. Yes, I accept the 10,000 or more of some early assessments was excessively pessimistic, but the death toll reported since rings no more true.

Know what? It sounds like something else.

You have a body count for Iraq. It's a number comprising solely US military fatalities, on the ground, in Iraq. Those who think a little more - and give a shit about the wogs - know the number of dead human beings is much, much, much higher. But what's missing? Let's see.

Some are saying those US troops who die after being evacuated from Iraq are not being counted. Is this true? It should not be difficult to determine: it just takes one mother who doesn't see her son's name on a supposedly comprehensive list. I tend to think that if there was any obfuscation going on there, if would be exposed fairly promptly.

But.

There's an awful lot of non-military personnel in there. Blackwater. Halliburton. Fijian ex-UN peacekeepers who found the work and money attractive. More. How are they counted? Are they counted? Who can connect all the numbers.

It's not lies, it's not a conspiracy, but it's callous and it's cynical and it's opaque. We're watching the dots when we should be joining them.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Not only in America

With a nod to Bobo's World, as if to say "you are not alone", from today's Dominion Post:

A Christchurch man bashed his former de facto partner to death in a blind rage over a stolen Nazi flag, a High Court jury was told.[...][Crown Prosector] Mark Zarifeh said Marsh admitted to police he had given his former partner "the bash" because she had taken a Nazi flag that was once in his lounge.[...]At one stage Marsh had got the couple's 12-year-old son to help drag her, unconscious, back inside his flat. Ms Hackell's five-year-old son from another relationship witnessed much of the beating.

What a lovely, lovely man. I'm betting the letter P figures prominently in this story's background.

Bedtime story

He almost added, "That's because if we do it, it's not torture. Heheh. Heheheh." Instead, he went on:

"There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again," Bush said. "So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law."

He then kissed America goodnight and turned out the light, leaving America staring fearfully at its bedroom wall where the moonshadows leaped and hopped.

"Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people," Bush said. "Any activity we conduct is within the law. We do not torture."

There it is again - that little sibilant voice between the ears spoiling my reading: "Any activity we conduct is within the law by definition. Oh, and by the way, don't mention Geneva, even if I say we are at war."

Friday, November 04, 2005

Pretend there's a witty buttock-related pun here

From the front page of Tuesday's Dominion Post:

This cheeky protest failed to make an impression on Victoria University chancellor Tim Beaglehole and university council secretary Christine Turner as students took action in the face of fees rising by hundreds of dollars next year.

[...]

Politics and criminology student David Cassidy's naked fury led him to bare his bum in protests at the fee rise.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

And I was having such a good day

The highly esteemed World O'Crap discovers the world of Gary and Lisa Ruby. Fear the Lord? Gary and Lisa fear everything, so naturally, Halloween is quivering jelly time. If you want to see the whole spectacular blancmange in all its glory, go to s.z.'s sterling dysconstruction and follow the link she provides. Go on, do it, or you'll miss gems like this:

[In the 1400s the] Druids went from castle to castle doing exactly the same thing. They also demanded a ‘treat’, however, this demand was for a young woman who could be offered as a human sacrifice in a Satanic ritual.

This just begs for a parody of a passage from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. A shame those parodies are invariably lamer than a three-legged giraffe. With gout.

I took a quick look at the Rubys' home page to glean some kind of context. Interesting stuff:

Why is God's Wrath on the Left Behind Series?

Uh, I dunno. Because it's crap?

Dangers of Christian Message Boards

wherein we find a link to

A Pre-Trib Message Board Run By Satan's Workers

in which we are told

The practice of not displaying IP's enables the administrators to use several aliases so as to gain the appearance of an ungodly liberal majority where none exists in actuality.

You have to laugh, because if you don't laugh, you start to think, and if you start to think, you begin to be afraid. Then you realise there's a hyperlink in this "What's New" item:

Please join with us in intercessory prayer, asking God to rescue the people who are being held for ritual human sacrifice on Halloween, October 31st.

You follow that link, and the fourth paragraph reads

God has confirmed to Gary and me that he does answer intercessory prayer on the behalf of intended sacrifice victims and that lives have been saved because Christians have fasted and prayed for their deliverance from ritual sacrifice.

These people have children. When I see this, I ask myself what they would be capable of in the belief they were protecting them.